Saint Mary's puts on dominant performance in win over San Diego

Saint Mary's puts on dominant performance in win over San Diego

SAN DIEGO — Saint Mary's knows it has little room for error when it comes to accomplishing its goals for this season. So Jock Landale and company took rebuilding San Diego quite seriously on Saturday night.

Landale and Calvin Hermanson scored 14 points apiece, and the 18th-ranked Gaels rolled to a 71-27 victory over the Toreros.

Saint Mary's (21-2, 11-2 West Coast Conference) limited San Diego to just nine field goals in its sixth straight victory. The Gaels shot 51 percent (26 for 51) from the field, compared to 19.6 percent (9 for 46) for the Toreros.

Saint Mary's went 29-6 last year, but was passed over when the field for the NCAA Tournament was announced. Two conference losses to Pepperdine helped derail the Gaels' chance for an at-large bid after they lost to Gonzaga in the WCC final.

"We always hold a chip on our shoulder because we didn't get there last year," Landale said. "And that is something we are striving for this year."

Saint Mary's coach Randy Bennett said what happened last season left the Gaels with an "interesting perspective."

"They did what they were supposed to do last year and then we lost in the championship game and didn't get in the NCAA Tournament," Bennett said. "So they understand how hard it is. There is a lot of pressure."

Olin Carter III led San Diego (11-13, 4-8) with 11 points. None of his teammates had more than three points.

The Toreros have dropped four of five.

"I think we took the right shots early; we took shots that we make in games," San Diego coach Lamont Smith said. "Unfortunately the shots didn't fall and I think we got a little defeated."

Bennett's biggest concern was his players easing up after building a big lead. That issue popped up in Thursday's 74-70 win over Pacific.

"Against Pacific we got up 17 points and it got that thing back to a one-possession game," Bennett said. "And we use that as a reference point. That is something this group has to get better at: taking it from 10 to 15 from 15 to 20 and tonight we did that. I was proud of our guys."

Smith is interested to see how his guys respond.

"It's a great thing for our basketball team to hit some adversity," Smith said. "Are we going to lie down or are we going to come out swinging and fighting?"

Saint Mary's led 32-9 at halftime and cruised to a season sweep of San Diego.

BIG PICTURE

Saint Mary's: The Gaels played with an edge, and maybe Saturday's results around college basketball helped their cause. With several teams ranked above Saint Mary's losing before it took the court, Bennett's squad turned in an impressive performance.

San Diego: The Toreros are rebuilding under Smith, a former San Diego player and ex-Saint Mary's assistant. They have two more wins than last season already, but they were overwhelmed by the talented Gaels.

Love finishes as Heisman runner-up

Love finishes as Heisman runner-up

NEW YORK — Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield has won the Heisman Trophy, completing a climb from walk-on to one of the most accomplished players in the history of college football.

The brash, flag-planting Sooners star became the sixth Oklahoma player to the win Heisman in one of the most lopsided votes ever.

Stanford running back Bryce Love was the runner-up, making it five second-place finishes for the Cardinal since 2009. Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson, last year's Heisman winner, was third, the best finish by a returning winner since Tim Tebow of Florida in 2008.

Mayfield received 732 first-place votes and 2,398 points. Love had 75 first-place votes and 1,300 points and Jackson received 47 and 793. Mayfield received 86 percent of the total points available, the third-highest percentage in Heisman history.

Mayfield is the third player to win the Heisman heading to the College Football Playoff. The second-ranked Sooners meet No. 3 Georgia in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1. He is the first senior to win the award since Troy Smith of Ohio State in 2006 and the first Heisman winner to begin his career as a walk-on since athletic scholarships started in the 1950s.

"It's been a tough journey," Mayfield said during his acceptance speech. He choked back tears thanking his parents and Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley.

Mayfield finished fourth in the Heisman voting two years ago and third last year. He entered this season as one of the favorites and jumped toward the front of the pack when he led the Sooners to an early victory at Ohio State that he celebrated by planting the OU flag in the Horseshoe turf.

He later apologized for that, but that has been Mayfield's career. Spectacular play fueled by grudges, slights and trying to prove doubters wrong. Moxie is the word that gets attached to Mayfield often, but at times poor judgment has gotten him in trouble on and off the field.

Those were really the only marks on Mayfield's Heisman resume because his play has been consistently stellar. He has thrown for 4,340 yards and 41 touchdowns this season for the Big 12 champion Sooners (12-1). For his career, Mayfield is eighth in FBS history in yards passing (14,320) and sixth in touchdown passes (129). He is likely to leave college with the two best single-season passer ratings in major college football.

Pretty good for a scrawny kid who grew up in Austin, Texas, rooting for Oklahoma, but did not receive a scholarship offer out of high school from either the hometown Longhorns or his beloved Sooners.

At Lake Travis High School, Mayfield won a state championship at a school that regularly pumps out Division I quarterbacks. Mayfield was undersized at 6-1 and received just one offer from a Power Five program — Washington State.

Instead, he walked-on at Texas Tech and started eight games as a freshman. With a glut of quarterbacks in Lubbock, Mayfield left and had only one school in mind.

Oklahoma had Trevor Knight, coming off a Sugar Bowl victory against Alabama and with three more seasons left of eligibility, but that did not dissuade Mayfield.

Mayfield thanked former Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops, who also was at the Best Buy Theater in midtown Manhattan, for welcoming a "chubby, unathletic kid into the program with open arms."

His departure from Texas Tech was contentious. At first, he lost a year of eligibility, despite not being on scholarship. Texas Tech could have given permission to waive the lost year, but did not.

Mayfield eventually got that year of eligibility back when the Big 12 tweaked its rules, but he never did let it go. For his last game against Texas Tech this season, he wore the "Traitor" T-shirt that some Red Raiders fans wore when he first returned to Lubbock with Oklahoma.

Later in the year, it was Kansas — or all teams — that tried to get the volatile Mayfield off his game. Jayhawks captains refused to shake his hand during the pregame coin flip. They trash-talked Mayfield and even took a late hit at him. He responded by screaming profanities and making a lewd gesture that television cameras caught. That led to a public apology from Mayfield, his third this year.

The first came after he was arrested in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in February for public intoxication, disorderly conduct and fleeing. He pleaded guilty to three misdemeanors and paid a $300 fine. The second came after that flag planting in Columbus, Ohio, after the Sooners beat the Buckeyes. Mayfield said before that early season showdown that the Buckeyes had irked him by celebrating on the Sooners' field in 2016.

Mayfield joins Jason White and Sam Bradford as Oklahoma quarterbacks who won the award since 2003. Only Notre Dame, Ohio State and USC have won more Heisman trophies with seven each.

Mayfield is an old-school winner. For decades, seniors dominated the Heisman, but over the last 10 years four juniors, four sophomores and two redshirt freshmen have won the Heisman. By comparison Mayfield has been around forever, that first season at Texas Tech coming in 2013. He has played 47 college games. Only USC's Carson Palmer with 50 had played more when he won his Heisman in 2002.

There is at least one more game to play for Mayfield, and maybe two. He and the Sooners will go into the playoff as a slight underdog against Georgia, which seems only appropriate for a player who has built his career on exceeding expectations.

Taggart living the New American Dream while his players suffer true consequences

Taggart living the New American Dream while his players suffer true consequences

The Rattocast

Willie Taggart has done his part to address the issue of undercompensation and freedom of college athletes by reminding them all that he has rights they don’t.

Taggart left his job coaching the football team at the University of Oregon after two days short of a year to take the job at Florida State University. It is his fourth school in six years, and the bowl game he led the Ducks to (the Las Vegas Bowl) will be his fourth, of which he has remained to coach one.

He has, in short, bettered himself consistently without establishing roots anywhere. It’s the New American Dream.

Yet the athletes who actual fuel the college sports engine must appeal to transfer, must sit out years of eligibility and in some cases have their choices restricted or vetoed outright because otherwise CHAOS WOULD REIGN!

Well, there’s chaos and then there’s chaos, of course, to be defined only by those in charge. Coaches do come and go -- 12 have filled vacancies since Chip Kelly took the UCLA job 10 days ago, and there will be plenty more. Somehow the system survives.

But players moving to seek their betterment is bad for business, most of the time because the suspicion is that they have been gotten to by other coaches from other programs – a classic case of the system saving itself from itself at the expense of the weakest of its membership.

The obvious inequity here has not troubled college administrators before, and it surely won’t this time either. The first responsibility of any system is to protect itself, and college football is a cheerily money-making powerhouse – in considerable part because players are underpaid and restricted in ways that coaches aren’t.

But maybe Taggart’s wanderlust can become a force for good. Maybe the next time an athlete wants to transfer, he’ll just ask for “a Taggart form” in hopes of “Taggarting” to another school. I mean, we’d say “Kiffining,” but there is no compelling reason why Lane Kiffin’s name should be in anyone’s mouth unnecessarily, to speak of another coach who sees a better shade of green in every job he doesn’t have but might someday want.